Haiku—seventeen-syllable poems that evoke worlds despite their brevity—have captivated Japanese readers since the seventeenth century. Today the form is practiced worldwide and is an established part of our common global heritage. This beautifully bound volume presents new English translations of classic poetry by the four great masters of Japanese haiku: Matsuo Bash, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa, and Masaoka Shiki. The haiku are accompanied by both the original Japanese and a phonetic transcription.
**Chosen for 2020 NCTE Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels List** **Winner of 2020 Northern Lights Book Award for Poetry** **Winner of 2019 Skipping Stones Honor Awards** My First Book of Haiku Poems introduces children to inspirational works of poetry and art that speak of our connection to the natural world, and that enhance their ability to see an entire universe in the tiniest parts of it. Each of these 20 classic poems by Issa, Shiki, Basho, and other great haiku masters is paired with a stunning original painting that opens a door to the world of a child's imagination. A fully bilingual children's book, My First Book of Haiku Poems includes the original versions of the Japanese poems (in Japanese script and Romanized form) on each page alongside the English translation to form a complete cultural experience. Each haiku poem is accompanied by a "dreamscape" painting by award-winning artist Tracy Gallup that will be admired by children and adults alike. Commentaries offer parents and teachers ready-made "food for thought" to share with young readers and stimulate a conversation about each work.
Perfect for a baby shower gift basket—Betsy Snyder's beloved tabbed board book celebrates the seasons in haiku! in tickly-toe grass a buttercup offers up yellow nose kisses The simple delights in baby’s natural world—a bird, a fish, a leaf, a snowflake, a raindrop—are celebrated in the traditional Japanese poetic form, the haiku. In just 17 syllables, a moment, a season, the elements are joyfully captured. Betsy Snyder's peaceful little board book has tabs to encourage little hands to turn the pages and adorable artwork to delight everyone!
Haiku originated in New York City in 1964, when Beat Generation poet Diane di Prima gave West Coast assemblage artist George Herms a series of seasonal poems that would lead him to create a suite of woodcuts illustrating them.
Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, this adoption story, Won Ton, told entirely in haiku, is unforgettable. Nice place they got here. Bed. Bowl. Blankie. Just like home! Or so I've been told. Visiting hours! Yawn. I pretend not to care. Yet -- I sneak a peek. So begins this beguiling tale of a wary shelter cat and the boy who takes him home.
A world of dew And within every dewdrop A world of struggle The iconic three-line haiku form is increasingly popular today as people embrace its simplicity and grace--and its connections to the Japanese ethos of mindfulness and minimalism. Say more with fewer words. This practical guide by poet and teacher Bruce Ross shows you how to capture a fleeting moment, like painting a picture with words, and how to give voice to your innermost thoughts, feelings, and observations. You don't have to be a practiced poet or writer to write your own haiku, and this book shows you how. In this book, aspiring poets will find: Accessible, easy-to-replicate examples and writing prompts A foreword that looks at the state of haiku today as the form continues to expand worldwide An introduction to related Japanese haiku forms such as tanka, haiga, renga, haibun, and senryu A listing of international journals and online resources Do you want to tell a story? Give haibun a try. Maybe you want to express a fleeting feeling? A tanka is the perfect vehicle. Are you more visual than verbal? Then a haiga, or illustrated haiku, is the ideal match. Finally, a renga is perfect as a group project or to create with friends, passing a poem around, adding line after line, and seeing what your group effort amounts to. Ross walks readers through the history and form of haiku, before laying out what sets each Japanese poetic form apart. Then it's time to turn to your notebook and start drafting some verse of your own!
The fascinating and quirky biography of a disheveled poet, skillfully interwoven with his original works. Zen monk Santoka Taneda (1882-1940) is one of Japan's most beloved modern poets, famous for his "free-verse" haiku, the dominant style today. This book tells the fascinating story of his life, liberally sprinkled with more than 300 of his poems and extracts from his essays and journals--compiled by his best friend and biographer Sumita Oyama and elegantly translated by William Scott Wilson. Santoka was a literary prodigy, but a notoriously disorganized human being. By his own admission, he was incapable of doing anything other than wandering the countryside and writing verses. Although Santoka married and had a son, he devoted his life to poetry, studying Zen, drinking sake and wandering the length and breadth of the Japanese islands on foot, as a mendicant monk. The poet's life alternated between long periods of solitary retreat and restless travel, influenced by his tragic childhood. When not on the road, he lived in simple grass huts supported by friends and family. Santoka was a lively conversationalist who was often found so drunk he could only make it home with the help of a friendly neighbor or passerby. But above all, throughout his life, he wrote constantly; poetry and essays flowed from him effortlessly. Santoka's eccentric style of haiku is highly regarded in Japan today for being truly modern and free from formal constraints. His journals and essays are equally thought-provoking--the musings of an unkempt but supremely self-conscious mind on everything from writing to cooking rice and his failure to live a more orderly life. This translation and its introduction are by best-selling author William Scott Wilson, whose other works include The Book of Five Rings and The Lone Samurai. Wilson provides sensitive renditions of the haiku illustrating Santoka's life as well as an extensive introduction to the influences on Santoka's work, from contemporary haiku poets and his Buddhist teachers. Alongside the book, readers have access to a two-hour online audio recording of 331 of Santoka Taneda's haiku, read in Japanese by a native speaker, and in English.
A compact collection of more than 500 poems from Jack Kerouac that reveal a lesser known but important side of his literary legacy “Above all, a haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi pastorella.”—Jack Kerouac Renowned for his groundbreaking Beat Generation novel On the Road, Jack Kerouac was also a master of the haiku, the three-line, seventeen-syllable Japanese poetic form. Following the tradition of Basho, Buson, Shiki, Issa, and other poets, Kerouac experimented with this centuries-old genre, taking it beyond strict syllable counts into what he believed was the form’s essence. He incorporated his “American” haiku in novels and in his correspondence, notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, and recordings. In Book of Haikus, Kerouac scholar Regina Weinreich has supplemented a core haiku manuscript from Kerouac’s archives with a generous selection of the rest of his haiku, from both published and unpublished sources.
575 Haiku Book is an irreverent and comedic poetry book filled with five hundred and seventy-five haikus plus lots of great illustrations. Written by two best friends in their college dorm, Mara and Mackenzie have created a one of a kind read.
